Solar, EVs and a big exit from coal: 2024’s good climate news
Solar capacity around the world was rolled out at a record pace, as bargain panel prices helped countries deploy cleaner energy.
Canada’s Liberal government has taken a page from the Obama Administration’s books as it plans to completely phase out traditional coal power by 2030, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna announced Monday.
Ottawa also said it would work with the country’s four provinces that still burn coal for electricity — Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick — to reduce coal power-related greenhouse gas emissions coming from them, which are equivalent to 10% of Canada’s current totals.
Canada’s Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said her ministry would work with the four provinces that still burn coal to reach the goal of making sure 90% of the country’s electricity comes from sustainable sources by 2010. (Image: McKenna’s webpage.)
The goal is to make sure 90% of the country’s electricity comes from sustainable sources by that time — up from the current 80%, McKenna said.
The new regulation will accelerate the existing timetable – laid down by Canada’s Conservative government in 2012 – for the four provinces that still burn coal to either adopt technology to capture carbon emissions or shut down all coal plants and replace them with lower-emitting sources, such as Alberta is doing.
The move is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 5 megatonnes by 2030, which is the equivalent of taking 1.3 million cars off the road. This is in addition to the 10 megatonnes that Alberta’s early phase-out of coal represents.
The plan includes a deal with Nova Scotia to give that province the flexibility it needs to shift directly from fossil fuels to cleaner sources of electricity, rather than switching to natural gas in the interim. McKenna noted her ministry is working on a similar agreement with Saskatchewan.
The minister also said the move is consistent with other countries’ policies, such as France, the UK, Netherlands, Denmark and Austria, which have all accelerated their coal phase-out plans.
5 Comments
old timer
coal use is increasing world wide. How stupid can Canada be? Voters need to know the truth when faced with the decision for higher cost “green” electricity:
IPCC co-chair on what international climate treaties are about:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-AXhzg12yOI8/VIP_CPD2B9I/AAAAAAAAgac/c9dcHdYUnGU/w907-h587-no/endenhofer.png … … …
patentbs
Canada is not stupid. The government is!
Art Easian
Not to despair. We can always sell coal to advanced countries who are building clean powerplants.
mijanko
The Ontario Society of Professional Engineers stated in a 2015 report that addition of Wind and Solar generated power will double our CO2 emissions from electricity generation by 2032. This is because our current system average output is 40 parts CO2 per unit of electricity and intermittent Wind/Solar require natural gas backup which averages 200 parts CO2 emitted per unit of electricity generated.
Meanwhile, the contractor Ontario hired to advised it in the mid-2000’s recommended new scrubbing technology which would have reduced SO2 emissions over 90% and produced Gypsum to send to drywall plants.
We are being played by our own governments (UN Agenda 21/2030) and they use our money and rigged rules to do it.
Ning
Coal is the most reliable energy source for mankind. It can be burnt as clean as the natural gas. This is just a matter of cost. CO2 can be captured and stored by planting and utilizing commercial trees rather than adopting those high-tech approaches.